Bouncing arounD: Camping In Palenque

After a huge breakfast in Palenque I went to reclaim my bag from the bus station. It is always funny to see people's expressions right before they have to lift it. Maybe that is why I am travelling with so much stuff! I crossed the street to wait for the collectivo, large vans that are a cross between a bus and a taxi, and you can get pretty far for 1 or 2 dollars. When the right one came the driver got out and he had to put my bag on the roof! He climbed a ladder the looked down at my bag with that look...and I hefted it up to him with some difficulty, and he somehow single-handedly swung it onto the roof (adios tomato! hello juicy mess in my food bag)

I headed up the road out of Palenque towards the ruins where I heard there are places to stay. I found a campground someone had mentioned, and the driver stopped and hopped up the ladder and grabbed my bag and lowered it into my arms almost squashing me.

I found a place to put up my tent and hammock, there are a bunch of campgrounds that also have palapas and little cabins, and each has a restaurant some with live music very night. Lots of folks around and a good vibe.

I heard of a waterfall to go swimming at from a Uruguayan who was selling jewelery near a cross-section of a few of the restaurants...the directions were right up my alley; go up the road just over a km, after you pass the museum and the road turns left take a path to the right, then when you get to the river climb up a bit! So i headed off, and after a few minutes I saw a truck of men on the side of the road and i thought to ask them for directions, and they suggested a waterfall that is closer but when I asked if you could swim they said no. It was stupid hot and humid...hence the drive for water. I used my new word Nadar (swimming) and at that exact moment someone was walking by and heard me say it and asked me if i was going swimming. She was also looking for the waterfall and we headed off. After taking the wrong path at the wrong left turn in the road and playing around in the bushes a while, discovering neat things like which plants have thorns, (even some trees did) we found the right path and came to the pictures below. (I just saved 1000 words)